F1: Vettel extends championship lead and Alonso on podium at home Grand Prix of Valencia

2011 European Grand Prix - Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing RB7 Renault leads into the first corner at the European grand prix.

Valencia, 26 June 2011.  World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel claimed his sixth win of the year in eight races, having started from pole position at the The Grand Prix of Europe Valencia street circuit. He was followed home by Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who claimed his second podium of the year, following the Monaco Grand Prix.

It was a perfect weekend for Vettel who claimed the win, pole and fastest lap to extend his championship advantage. Despite extremely challenging conditions with ambient temperatures of 28 degrees and a track temperature of 47 degrees, there were no high dramas or retirements.

Sebastian Vettel “From the outside, I’m not sure if it seemed that much was happening in the race, but I enjoy it so much then it’s between you and the car on every single lap. Of course, I had pressure from behind, especially as the strategy was a little bit different with Mark and Fernando – sometimes they were pitting earlier and sometimes later. I had a gap before the first pit-stop, but I came out very close to them, so again I had to push hard while judging the tyres and trying to imagine what the end of the stint might be like. You are trying to foresee the strategy, so every single lap it’s between you and the car. I enjoy this track a lot, last year I had a very smooth weekend here and again this year too. It’s fantastic, the team has done a phenomenal job preparing the car. Even though we come here every year and think it may be tricky for us, as there are no real fast corners, we managed to come here and have a faultless weekend. I’m obviously very happy with the result.”

Race winner Sebastian Vettel is congratulated by third placed team mate Mark Webber - Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images

The top three were separated by just three seconds heading into the last 20 laps of the race, using pit stop strategy to make the difference. After Fernando Alonso passed Mark Webber for second place on lap 22, the Red Bull Racing driver stopped earlier than his rival for his penultimate set of tyres to regain the runner-up spot in the pits: an exercise that has come to be known as the ‘undercut’ this year.

Mark Webber “I think we should have finished second today. It was a good race with Fernando, I think it was my best race of the year to be honest until the last pit stop. It was quite close with all three of us (Fernando, Mark and Seb), obviously we were trying to go as fast as possible and manage the tyres at the same time. Iwas very happy with how the race was going until the last stop and it was my fault basically. I was worried about Fernando getting the undercut and it was not really known how the medium tyre would behave on the out lap, but it was a risk I decided to take. I lost out to Fernando, he drove a good race. We had a gearbox problem at the end, so we backed right off, but we had a massive gap to McLaren, so we could cruise to the end and look after the gearbox.”

Alonso was able to leapfrog Webber in the pits with just 10 laps to go as he went onto the final stint. The top seven all made use of the same three-stop strategy.

Christian Horner RedBull Team Principle “A fantastic team performance with first and third and a lot of points today. It was a tight race with Fernando all afternoon, both our drivers had good starts running one and two initially, then Fernando was able to use the DRS to get ahead of Mark. Mark managed to get back past him through pit stop strategy and then stay ahead, as it evolved into a three stop race. Unfortunately at the last round we just didn’t have enough to stay ahead of him with Mark to get the one-two, but a one-three is still fantastic. Sebastian drove another immaculate race and has consolidated his lead in the Drivers’ Championship. It was another great haul of points today for the team and it was great to have Mr. Mateschitz here to see the Red Bull cars both on the podium today.”

Sauber driver Sergio Perez by contrast went for a one-stop strategy, changing to the soft tyre on lap 25, which he then used for 32 laps until the finish on lap 57. The Mexican, returning to the cockpit after a two-race absence following his qualifying crash in Monaco, just missed out on a championship point by six seconds.

The Formula 1 circus is back in action over the weekend of 10 July at Silverstone for Round 9, the British Grand Prix.

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